Spanglish | editing

Epilogue

"Nida, help me please! This box is heavy!" Daniel whines, dropping a large cardboard box on the platform leading to the second set of stairs in our new apartment building.

Through a high school graduation, college applications, moving to an entirely new city, and struggling through two years of college classes, Daniel and I are still going strong in our relationship. After the Christmas of our senior year, we've had so much motivation to keep going hand in hand, just like my promise ring signifies. That ring never leaves my hand unless I'm showering or sleeping, other than that, it's practically glued to my skin. After two years, I still absolutely adore it. Sometimes while we're hanging out, I'll ask Daniel if there's anything I can do to pay him back, and he'll always say something along the lines of "Yeah, kiss me" or "I mean, there's one thing I have in mind but, not while there's people around."

Boggles my mind why I love this man.

We got accepted to The Ohio State University, only an hour and a half away from home, as I didn't want to go too far. I got in on several academic scholarships, to the point where I'm barely paying anything to go here. Daniel's parents pay for him to go here. He was offered a football scholarship, but Daniel said he was done with football after high school, claiming that it was "a period of his life that he wants to be finished with." I completely accepted this, happy with whatever he wanted to do. With or without a jersey on him, I still love him with every part of me.

As for the other members of the football team that I love, Ariel and Chris are going to college at the University of Cincinnati while Adam is going to the University of Toledo. It wasn't our plan to split up for college, but that's just how our lives planned out. The five of us still are adamant on talking and seeing each other, as they are still huge parts of Daniel and I's lives, just not as often as we would like.

Adam still plays football while working on a engineering degree. From what I know, he and his girlfriend are also very happy. Chris also quit football, but him and his lovely fiancé, Ariel, are pursuing a teaching degree and an art degree. Daniel is working on a physical therapy degree, and I'm slowly making my way towards a degree in medicine.

My mother and siblings are doing great, from what I know. I always call Mama at least once every three days to make sure they're doing okay without me. It still feels odd to not be at home, regulating everything, but everything's going amazing from what they tell me. My mom has been promoted three times since I've been gone, and those siblings of mine are passing classes with flying colors.

I look at my boyfriend, who's leaning against the railing, waiting for me to help him with this last box. Like the pair of dumbasses we are, we decided to make the heaviest box be the last one we carry up two flights of stairs. Laughing, I bend down and put my hands underneath the cardboard box as Daniel does the same on the opposite side and we lift simultaneously. Carefully, I walk backwards up the stairs, the only thing guiding me being Daniel's words.

"I swear to God, if I fall, I'm suing." I proclaim, anxiously putting one foot behind the other and climbing the stairs. Daniel chuckles and smirks, keeping in line with my steps. His smile still brightens my day, his twenty-year-old smile.

"You already fell for me once. If you fall again, I'll catch you." Daniel teases, causing me to not only blush but to smile.

"You're such a cocky bastard." My feet continue to make its way up the steps, slowly but surely. Daniel's smirk is still prominent.

"The same cocky bastard that you mistakenly fell for." We both laugh at that statement and then my right foot hits the platform that is our floor.

Grateful that I don't have to walk backwards anymore, Daniel and I fully make it onto the floor and walk side by side.  Him and I have never shared an apartment before officially. Our freshman year of college, it was required we live in dorms, however if I wasn't in his dorm, then he was in mine. Sophomore year, we did the same thing, staying in dorms and planning to find an apartment for junior year. This will be the first residency that his parents haven't paid for.